First hamon in a while/WIP

R

running bird

Joined
Sep 29, 2015
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498
Now that I’m out of school for the summer I was able to quickly get right into working on some new knives. I haven’t done a hamon or stock removal blade in a while so I went right into this one and it’s turning out pretty nice: https://imgur.com/a/UGKHv0K

This blade is made from Aldo’s 1075. I got an Evenheat over winter break and this was my first knife I got to HT in it, also finally got some parks 50. For the HT I brought the blade up to 1450F for 5 min then quenched in parks 50. Then did 2 one hour tempering cycles at 380F.

This was also my first time using satanite for the hamon. I used just the satanite for the majority of the hamon. Then when I got close to the edge I mixed the satanite 50/50 with some ashes from my chimney. Not sure if this helped with detail, but I’ve only taken the blade to 600 grit so far.

To get the hamon where it is now I sanded to 600 grit using some soft wood scraps as a backer. I then etched in medium warm (heated in the microwave for 45sec) distilled vinegar with 1 teaspoon of dish soap. I etched 4 times at 5min each. Between the fist two etches I rubbed off the lose oxides with a wet paper towel and dish soap ( I prefer this over using steel wool or similar abrasive). Then between the 3rd and 4th etch I used a 3,000 grit sanding pad to brush off the oxides. I only did three light passes on each side with the sanding pad, I don’t like using anything to abrasive after an etch, only enough to bearly scratch the finish.

I’ll be adding to this thread as I continue working on this blade. The hamon as is does not fallow the layout I used for the clay, and after the first etch I could see faint shadows of where the clay was. So I know there is much finer detail hiding in the ji, just waiting for me to get into the higher grits.
 
Looks good. Only thing I question is how close the transition zone is to the edge especially close to the heal.
 
You may have used too thick of clay.
Do you have any pics of the clay before you quenched?
 
Sorry I don’t have any pictures of the clay before hand. But the clay was kept 1/2” from the edge of the blade. I was a little confused by how close the hamon came to the edge. Should I try and quench again? Maybe use a high soak temperature if the thicker spine didn’t fully heat up?
 
Even with thin clay you can take it to 1/4” of your edge. Try 1460 with a 6 minute soak.
Thin clay, thiiiiiin.
 
I prefer the hamon to be about 1/3 to 1/2 way up from the edge. I place the clay just a bit higher than the desired hamon line. Clay the entire blade with a thin wash of clay and let dry. It should be a thin slurry like a melted milkshake. Re-clay the upper part with a thin layer of sour cream thick clay to form the hamon. It should be 1/16" to 1/8" thick.
 
I’m going to re-do the hamon on this blade today. Right now it’s going through a few cycles in the kiln to get it soft again. I’ll post pictures of the clay once it’s all set up tonight.

I’m going to increase the hold temp for the HT from 1450 to 1460 and hold for an extra minute or two as suggested above.

I’m thinking my oven is off by about 10° or so. I’ll try editing all my temps +10°.
 
Did you normalize the blade? I struggled with some of Aldo’s 1075 recently due to the spheroidization. I was getting large grain even after normalizing at 1600. I had some help from a couple of forum members on here. I took it up to about 1650 and held it there for about 20 minutes, then 1550, cooled to black, 1450, cooled to black, 1450 again, 1460 6 minute soak, quench in p50.

Normally 1500 should be ok for 1075, but the lower aus temp seems to show more activity with the hamon.
 
That’s exactly the process I’m doing right now. the blade is getting up to 1650, my even heat is an 18” deep 120v model so it takes a while to get there.

I was trying to go with 1450 originally for more activity, but I guess with the thickness my stock is 1450 just isn’t quite hot enough.

Good thing I posted pictures before going too much farther. I shrugged off the hamon being close to the edge at first
 
I got the blade out of the kiln today after normalizing and it’s nice and soft again.

I drew out the lay out I’m planning for the clay in pencil here: https://imgur.com/a/7cpVD4j

The first clay set up was very similar to this but with longer, “barbs” as I call them, for the ashi. I’ll alternate thick and thin barbs from the heel to the tip. I’m going to shorten the barbs a bit this time around too, to keep the hamon farther away from the edge just in case.

I’m also going to double check that the main body of the hamon is 1/8” thick, while the barbs are closer to 1/16”.

I’ll post pictures of the clay once it’s all set up and drying


Kevin
 
running bird said:
I got the blade out of the kiln today after normalizing and it’s nice and soft again.

I drew out the lay out I’m planning for the clay in pencil here: https://imgur.com/a/7cpVD4j

The first clay set up was very similar to this but with longer, “barbs” as I call them, for the ashi. I’ll alternate thick and thin barbs from the heel to the tip. I’m going to shorten the barbs a bit this time around too, to keep the hamon farther away from the edge just in case.

I’m also going to double check that the main body of the hamon is 1/8” thick, while the barbs are closer to 1/16”.

I’ll post pictures of the clay once it’s all set up and drying


Kevin
Click to expand...

Try interrupting the quench too. Quench-one thousand-out-one thousand-quench
 
So I got to grinding the decarb off the blade today and there is definetly way more activity in the ashi. And the transition line is at even length from the edge from heel to tip. It looks much better than the last one

I’m taking the blade up to 600grit right now then I’ll post pictures of how the hamon turned out.

I fallowed the HT as I stated in my last post then tempered 2x at 380°, and I also tried a slight interruption as Kuraki suggested. All this added together definetly improved the activity in the hamon.

Thank you all for helping me develope a base HT for my 1075 blades. You guys on the forum are all really helpful and respond quickly when I need help.

I’ll have pictures up in an hour or so once I’m at 600grit and etched,

Kevin
 
I quench IN-2-3, OUT -2-3, IN for an eight count, pull out to check for any major warp/twist, and hang to cool.
 
I got the blade up to 600 grit, then etched 2 times for 5 min in warm vinegar/dish soap. Inbetween etches I brushed the oxides off lightly with a 3,000 grit sanding sponge.

Here are some pictures of it after etched and after brushed: https://imgur.com/a/4fSKOGj

This is exactly the level of detail I was shooting for.

There are still some marks from the pervious grit on the blade, I just wanted to get some pictures up quick as soon as I can. I’ll be cleaning up the marks then going onto 800 and 1,200 grit. I’ll post pictures along the way.

Kevin
 
It took a while but I finally got the polishing done on this blade. I haven’t done a differential polish like this in quite a while so it took some trial and error. But it turned out perfectly so far, I might polish the Ha and Ji a little more tonight or tomorrow.

Here’s where it is now: https://imgur.com/a/DKujw02

I’ll have more pictures tomorrow when I touch up the hamon a bit.

Thanks for looking,
Kevin
 
Today I went over the blade another time with my polishing compounds. I use a diluted aluminum oxide for the soft steel, and red iron oxide for the hardened steel. I also went over the hamon with some diluted lemon juice to bring back some spots that faded while polishing again. The blade definetly has a much more “clean” finish now: https://imgur.com/a/iKbRi2w

Next I’m going to start getting the handle material ready for this blade. I’m thinking of using some black/grey g-10 with white liners. I also have some iron wood scales I could use with copper liners. Not sure which I like more for this blade.
 
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